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A PAPER READ BEFORE THE 



New York Historical Society. 



BY 



T. ASTLEY ATKINS, 

Vice=(P resident of the Yonkers Historical and Library 

Association. 

JUNE 5th, 1894. 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE YONKERS HISTORICAL AND LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. 
1894. 



\ 



N'i 



CI 



NEW YORK HlSl'ORICAL SOCIETY, 

170 Second Avenue. 

New Vokk, Aphil lO't'if, 1894, 

ilON. T. A^iTLfeV AtKISS, 

Dear Sir : 

The Committee on Papers of our Society have 

learned with great pleasure that you have in course of preparation a 
paj^er on the "Manor of Philipsburgh," and having expressed a will- 
ingness to favor the Society at its regular meeting on Tuesday Even: 
ing, June 5th, next, witli results of your researclies, and in accord- 
ance with their instructions I beg to convey to you their cordial 
invitation to that effect. I remain, Dear Sir, 

Very truly youfs, 

.1. W. C. J.EVERIDGE, 

Chairman. 



MANOR OF PHILIPSBURGH 



PART 



CREATION OF THK MANOR. 



To MANY men there is in the unknown an inexplicable 
tascination. This fascination has at all times impelled the 
more venturesome to action, to investigation and to con- 
quest. History is crowded with examples of the truth of 
this saying. The history of our country furnishes num- 
berless cases of the seeking after prosperity or glory in 
the favoring continent upon which we live. For several 
generations the mystery of the Atlantic Coast was sought 
to 'be solved by Dutchman, Englishman, Spaniard and 
Frenchman, not to speak lightly of the efforts of the 
valorous Swede in the same direction. Could gold be 
founds Could religion be furthered? Could honor be 
secured in this mysterious region ? Such were the ques- 
tions asked. 

Across the turbulent Atlantic—so our Dutch ancestors 
learned from report, from travelers and from written 
scources of information— there was country of unlimited 
possibilities, a country both like and unlike their own 
beloved Netherland. Their interest wag aroused, when, 
from various sources, they heard of great rivers land- 
locked harbors, marsh and meadow land, and tree-clad 
hills, witli open valleys, growing familiar products, and 
all near the ocean and easily reached, once the great sea 
was safely passed. 

While the Dutchman was piously inclined, he made no 
claim of salvation of souls to justify his seizure of abori- 
<rinal hmd, and while he would not fail to secure the 



golden nugget by fair means, he scorned its acquisition by 
foul. Your true Dutchman prefers, and always did prefer, 
something like himself, that is, something that was solid 
and when once acquired, would not take wings to itself. 
While the lighter spirited Spaniard digged and murdered 
for gold, the Dutchman delved and sought for land. And 
so with the lust of land in his mind, and with an eye to 
the possession of dryer and broader acres than the father- 
land offered to its crowded children, the denizen of the 
low country made his quiet and almost unannounced set- 
tlement in the new world, the land of promise. 

The Dutchman has and always will have a stolid, 
persuasive method of pushing his way to the front. 
Seldom discouraged by adverse circumstances, always 
possessed of an indomitable spirit of perseverance, hard to 
convince that he is beaten, he was just the settler for the 
country he coveted and possessed. 

The reality never seemed to disappoint him as it did 
his English and Spanish co-settler. Probable the glitter 
did not attract him so much as the reality impressed him. 
Used to hardship and stern reality at home he had possi- 
bly not expected an easier life in the new world. Accus- 
tomed to earn his bread in true scriptural manner he had 
no expectation of finding tlie meadows and forests golden, 
otherwise than through the same toil and anxiety which 
ruled his early home. And so the wily, able-bodied Du'tcli 
settler came, and seeing, approved and claimed this little 
island for his own. He brought not only his unconquer- 
able spirit with him, but also his family and his earthly 
possessions. He came to stay. So also, alas ! did many 
who had neither fandly nor possessions to bring with 
them. 

Soon even this island of the Maiihates was not capa- 
cious enough to suit the now thoroughly aroused Dutch 
settler, and he looked longingly over towards the larger 
islands, and peered audaciously northward up the river of 
Hendrick Hudson. 

To the Northward, but a little way up the river, and 
over on the Main, there seemed a goodly land. The lower 
portion was wonderfully like the home country he had so 



lately left. There were swift flowing tidal streams, and 
thonsands of acres of salt marsh and meadow land, low 
lying along the stream and a little above the marsh. Pos- 
sibly if it had been a little higher above the water we 
might have been treating of an English Manor instead of a 
Dutch one. Who knows 'i Less than this has turned the 
tide of conquest and settlement. 

The settlement of Manhattan Island is over familiar to 
all, and we need not delay even a moment to consider it. 
The settlement of the Manor land adjacent to this island 
is not so well known, and deserves more consideration 
than has been accorded it by local historians. 

When the dweller in New Amsterdam in very early 
days started northward, he seldom reached the tidal river 
known as the Harlem and Spuyten Duyvil Creek. Over 
that river still dwelt Indians, and the country was vir- 
tually unknown. It was easier to sail uj) the Hudson, or 
along the Sound, and immeasurably safer, than it was to 
investigate the qualities of meadow and forest to the 
north of the little stream, which separated the Main from 
the Island. Again it was the mysterious land. But long 
years after the Dutchman had settled this Island, the 
Main land was unsettled and practically unknown. 

No doubt longing eyes had been cast that way, but it 
was too far away from the town to attempt settlement in 
eariler days. It was unsafe to do so. 

As one passed up or dow^n the noble river to the new 
settlements at the North, the future Manor of Phillips- 
burgh looked pleasing, though hardly accessible. One 
proud spirited Dutchman saw it, coveted it, and later won 
it, Adriaen van der Donck by name. 

Before further mention of this celebrated character, 
let us for a moment dwell upon the scene of the future 
Manor, as it apj)eared at the time of Hendrick Hudson's 
sail along its West line on his trips North and South. 

Across from the island of the Ifanhates, over the 
Kill now known as Spuyten Duyvil Creek, the Manor 
land commenced on the river side with the majestic blutf 
known to the Indian as Sho-7'ack-ap-pock, and later to 
the Dutch as the Sjyfn/f-den-dtcyvil, or the point of the 



6 

"devils." You will note that tradition gives this section 
of the Manor the credit of the tirst unpleasant contact of 
the hardy Dutchmen, or Englishmen as you will, with the 
black "devils" of the Main. AVe often find the Indians 
mentioned as devils in the early New York and Jersey 
records. 

To the east of Sho-racJi-ajy-pocJi the land under the 
bluff was salt meadow and sloping hill-side until a point 
on the Harlem was reached, where Fordham lies. The 
bluff reached along the Hudson nearly four miles, an 
unbroken forest; the meadow land stretched np into the 
country behind it full as many miles. To the Dutchman 
this rear country was indeed most charming, most home- 
like. 

Four miles up the river the lirst break occurs. Happy 
Nap-peck-a-mack here came bubbling and sparkling fresh 
from the hills of " Chappequa^'''' and flowed untainted and 
pure into the Ma-hi-can-i-tucJc, "ever flowing waters." 
In fifty j^ears after settlement by the Dutch we find 
Nap-peck-a-rnack corrupted into Nepperhaem., and its 
Indian dwellers into Mahicanders^ the Mohicans of their 
English successors. 

Following the line of hills on the east bank of the 
Hudson, the next notable break was at Wick-qnas-keck^ 
corrupted into Wicker'' s Creek ^ at Dobb's Ferry. 

At Tarrytown, Alipconck, the Po-can ti-co broke 
through the forest-clad hill before one came to 8int Sinck, 
and last of all the hill sloped off at the Kitclia-wanck. or 
Croton River. East of this river bluff was a j^erfect jumble 
of narrow valleys and steep forest-clad hills, until the 
line of the Neperah (spell it as you will, Nepera, Nep- 
perlian, Nipporha, or Nappeckamack) the eastern bound- 
ary line for many a mile north of the Bronx, to' which the 
line shifted when the Nepperan struck out for the West. 
Incidentally you have the boundaries of the Manor. 

And who dwelt Ihere in those early days ? Ruttenber 
is my authority for saying that the Manhates of the island 
spread over the lower mainland at and about Shorackap- 
pock, even so far as Nappeckamack, and then the Wick- 



quaskecks nortli and east of them; for we hear of Wick- 
quaskecka as far over as Greenwich on the Sound. 

Pui-suing our journey northward we find the wigwams of 
the *S///^ Sincks. Numerous small settlements also dotted 
the interior country. Thus we have discovered and peoi)led 
with Indians, that tract of land now known as the south 
west corner of old Westchester County, covered at present 
by the well known 'settlements of Kings Bridge, Spuyten 
Duyvil, Riverdale, Yonkers, Hastings. Dobbs' Ferry, 
Irvington, Tarrytown and Sing Sing. 

In the days we write of, however, the Indian settlers 
had a worse name than have their white successors. A 
sample opinion may be given : One Wassenaar writes as 
follows: "On the east side (of the Hudson) on the main 
land, dwell the Manhattans, a bad race of savages, who 
have always been very obstinate and unfriendly towards . 
our people." Just why this writer gave the main-land 
folk such a bad name is puzzling, unless it be that the 
savage objected to the Dutch trespassing upon his little 

farm. 

Of these North River Indians Adriaen van der Donck 
wrote as follows: "From sixteen to eighteen families 
occupied one house." These houses, it would seem, were 
rudely constructed arbors, rarely exceeding twenty-live 
feet in length. He continues : "A single tire in the centre 
served them all, although each family occupied at night 
its particular division and mats." They suffered, as might 
well be supposed, in this climate, and in such houses, from 
rheumatism and toothache, and were prone to apoplexy 
and gout. For all these ills their chief remedy was the 
sweating bath. He further says of them: "They are 
cheerful when they have a sufficiency to support nature." 
Their food consisted of badgers, dogs, fish, snakes, frogs 
and such like. They made pap, which they called sapsis, 
and mixed it with beans. They were not particularly 
regular about meals, eating when hunger prodded them to 
it. A right royal feast is said to have been beaver tails, 
brains of fish and sapsis ornamented with beans. When 
eating they squatted. 

The same writer savs that in those days the river was 



rich in stuigeon, bass, sheepshead and the like, and he 
says that in his day, about the middle of the seventeenth 
century two frisky whales journeyed northward, even so 
far as Cohoes. Even the staid Dutchnian loved to tell a 
wondrous tale. 

It is my purpose to indulge this evening in as few dates 
and quotations as is possible, but to hx matters more 
clearly in our minds a date now and then seems absolutely 
necessary. It was in the year sixteen hundred and thirty- 
nine, and in the month of August, at Fort Amsterdam, that 
the iirst of those pioush' conceived robberies of the natives 
took place, and the Dutch West India Company hongJit 
from Feckquerneck and other guileless Indians KecJceshicJi, 
"which lies over against the flats uf the Island of 
Manhates.'' 

About the j^ear sixteen hundred and forty-six Adriaen 
van der Donck is reported as the purchaser of these or a 
portion of these lands, and land to the North, including 
Nepperliaem^ from an Indinn Chief named Taekarew. 
Titles were shadowy in those daj^s, and boundaries uncer- 
tain, but van der Donck was recognized as "' Patroon of the 
Colony of Nepperhaem, called by him Colendonck." The 
probable boundaries of his estate took in most, if not all, 
of the old town and present City of Yonkers. It was 
bounded ''on the North by a stream called Maccakassin, 
and ran South to Nepperhaem; thence to ShorakapkocJi 
Kill and to Pa-pi-ri-nl-men Creek, and Eastward to the 
Bronx," Not quite all yet of the Manor of Phillipsburgh, 
but a very valuable portion of it, especially the low land. 

Having treated the i^ersonal history of van der Donck 
at length in a x^aper read before the Westchester County 
Historical Society at their annual meeting at the Court 
House in White Plains, and having filed a copy of that 
paper in your library, you will not be asked to consider the 
first Patroon of Yonkers at any great length now. But a 
few words concerning this celebrated man, whose birth- 
place, Breda Holland, I visited a few years ago in search 
of historical material, may not be amiss. 

Y^oung van der Donck was brought up amid the din of 
war, and the disquiet of a religious struggle, which shook 



9 

the little work! an^uiid liiui to its very fouiidations. After 
pursuing his studies to the extent of the facilities of that 
day, he enjoyed the privilege of a course of law at the 
University of Leyden, which institution afterwards con- 
ferred on liim the degree of Doctor of the Civil and Canon 
Law. 

In the year sixteen hundred and forty-one he was 
appointed Sheriff of Renssalaerwyck. His stay at the 
North was not the most cheerful period of his life, for he 
was engaged in numerous squabbles, and rather wore his 
welcome out there, and probably was better satisfied with 
his Patroonship down the river. Certainly he was most of 
his life at variance with the constituted authorities, whether 
at xVmsterdam, New Amsterdam, or Renssalaerwyck. It 
is said of these early times that wlien the Patroons were 
not busy lighting the natives, they were quarrelling with 
the liome government, and when tliese pastimes failed, 
then they managed to embroil themselves with their Eng- 
lish neighbors. 

After van der Donck came down from Renssalaerwyck 
the select men of New Amsterdam chose him and two other 
" persons of honor and of good name and fame," to go 
home and "represent the poor condition of the country 
and pray for redress." 

Van der Donck was an agitator, a reformer, and always 
a friend of the people. It reads like our Revolutionary 
history, that the New Netherlands Dutchman's wrongs 
arose from, 1st. Unsuitable government; 2d. Scanty privi- 
leges; Bd. Onerous imposts and exactions. During his 
residence as People's Delegate at the Hague, he received 
many far more incendiary appeals than this simple state- 
ment, which he took with him. It is impossible to follow 
the career of van der Donck in detail; it would till books 
to do so. 

He returned to this Colony in the year sixteen hundred 
and lifty-tliree, but no account of his reception has come 
into my hands, and his movements from that date until 
his death are but slightly recorded. From subsequent 
records, in which the division of his property is men- 
tioned, it is probal)le that he died within a short time 



10 

after liis return to his Colony. A few years later we 
iincl him spoken of by his ungrateful neighbors as ''Old 
Ver Donck." 

Between the time of Adriaen van der Donck and the 
possession of the lirst of the Philipses, there was a period 
of unrest, and re-settlement in and upon the Main land. 
The Indian rising of Sixteen hundred and tifty hve cleared 
the land between the Croton and the Harlem and the 
Hudson and the Bronx rivers of inhabitants. It is sup- 
posed, although there is no real authority to back up the 
supposition, that the Indians swept from the face of 
the earth not only every vestige of van der Donck' s 
descendants, but all their cattle and farm stock, as well as 
their houses and barns. But it is fair to i)resume that 
some of them, with their moveable property, hed to their 
relatives on Long Island. For several years, at least after the 
so-called "rising," the main land adjacent to the Island 
of the Manhates was not the safest place in the world 
for a gentleman's country residence. Gradually, however, 
the towns people recovered from their fright, and we find 
transfers of parts of the land adjacent to the island, and 
some considerable settlements on the borders of our tract. 
But it is generally conceded that the events of Sixteen 
hundred and fifty-five reduced the south west corner of 
what is now Westchester County to the almost identical 
state of aboriginal quiet in which it was found by Adriaen 
van der Donck, when he took nominal possession, and 
started out to recruit a colony for it in Holland. 



PART II. 



THE MANOR OF PHILIFSBURG. 



We now come to the Philipse family's possession. 
Everybody knows, that of all of the Dutch residents of 
the prosperous city of New Amsterdam, ffreric Vlypse 
was indeed by far the wealthiest and most important. To 
doubt it would be heresy. In the year of the Indian rising 



11 

just mentioned, did he not piirtriotically contribute the 
niagniticent sum of twenty guilders towards defraying the 
expense of constructing the city defences ? Somehow or 
other tlie Collector got his name on the list as Flipzen, 
which, ju'obably did not trouble that worthy gentleman 
much, as he had to put up with more frequent changes of 
name in the course of transition from ffreric Ylypse, to 
Frederick Philipse, Esquire, than most of his Dutch 
fellow citizens. 

Nineteen yf^ars later this well-to-do merchant, living 
then on Brouwer's Straat, near the fort, was considered, 
and rightly so, '*the richest man of his time," being 
credited with worldly possessions to the value of One 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, rated then in almost 
uncountable guildei*s. He never described himself, as did 
the church records, as " De Heer Frederick Philipse" 
to his friends and acquaintances, until the day of his 
<leath, he always wrote and called himself Frederick 
Vlypse. 

It mattered little to him who ruled the cit\', for did 
not his position as the richest merchant of the time, and 
the all persuasive powder of his guilders, enable him to be 
in with all parties ? When the Dutch held possession of 
New Amsterdam, he w^as a Dutchman, when the English, 
he was an Englishman. The change of fealty rested as 
easy uj)on his conscience as the change of name to which 
he was so frequenth' subjected. 

Like all good Dutchmen, Felypsen, as he \vas some- 
times called in earlier days, loved to increase his stock 
of guilders, and, for that noble purpose carried on, as far 
as was possible in those early days, a trade with foreign 
lands. He lacked, however, one very much coveted priv- 
ilege, namely, free-trade along the coast of New Nether- 
lands. Once his mind made up, it did not take him long 
to attain his object. For had not their High Mighti- 
nesses in the Charter of Sixteen hundred and twenty-nine? 
granted to Patroons the right of free-trade along the 
aforesaid coast i AVhat easier way then to obtain this last 
and most precious franchise than to buy a plantation, and 
become a Patroon '( And, as a Pairoon could i)urchase 



12 

and hold full twelve miles of sliore line, where could be 
found a choicer spot than the lands of van der Donck at 
Yonkers and the meadows and slopes of the Pocantico ? 
The trade of the coast mif^ht thus easily be obtained. 

And so it hap'pened that the land on the river was 
bought, and Castle Phiiipse built on the Pocantico, and 
the Manor House on the Nepperhan. But do not tliink 
that this was done in a trice. On the contrary the Royal 
Charter, dated the twelfth day of June, Sixteen hundred 
and ninety-three, shows about the following state of 
affairs. The Southernmost tract ui)on the " Main," 
bounded to the North by a rivulet called by the Indians 
Maccackassin, so running Southward to Nepperhan, from 
thence to the Kill ShoracJcka Pod' and to Fa-par-rin-no- 
ino^ which is the most southernmost bounds, then to go 
across the country, eastward by that which is commonly 
known by the name of Bronx's river, came to Vlypse by 
easy stages from various parties. And then there was an- 
other iDlot under the following description, "a certain 
tract or parcel of land beginning at a creek or river called 
by the Indians Pocanieco or Wac/iandeco^ with power 
thereon to set a mill or mills Avitli a due portion of land on 
each side, adjoining unto the said river, lying within 
the bounds of the Indian lands at AVicker's Creek, on 
the east side of the Hudson river," which j)aTcel, not to 
trouble you, with the exact words of the technical descrip- 
tion, ran uj^ into the country "as far as the creek goeth," 
except where it approached within four hundred feet of 
the JVippiorha. A glance at the Westchester County 
Map will show that these two small streams take their 
rise not far from each other, and for quite a Avhile tiow 
southward at no great distance from one another. The 
Po-can-tico finds the Hudson at Tarrytown, the Nepper- 
han at Yonkers. 

Another parcel was that lying about Wiq quas-keck to 
the North side and tending from the land of the aforesaid 
Frederick Phiiipse running along the North river to the 
north of the small creek called by the Indians SepaQkena 
Creek as far as it goeth into the woods, and coming to 
the end of the aforesaid creek then shall the aforesaid 



IB 

pieces or parcels of hiiul have their line northeast, &c,, &c. 
Still another began at the South side of a creek called 
Bis\s-if/(ick i\nd so northerly and then easterly ovei- to the 
Pocantico ; and another parcel soutiierly from this creek 
BissigficA- and East over to the Nepperhan. 

The liberality of these boundaries will be noted at 
this time when our Westchester neighbors ar-e often in 
the Courts over an inch or so of encroachment, or the 
drip of a neighbor's eaves suffices to set a whole street 
in a turmoil. 

If you liave followed the intimation of the earlier 
pages of my })aper, you will note thar these puix-hases 
just spoken of cover al)out as well as any such generous 
description can cover, a ver\' large and important tract of 
country and somewhat more land tlian van der Donck 
claimed to hold. The villages of Kings Bridge, Spuyten 
Du^nil and Riverdale at the south end, and Yonkers City 
in the Centre, and Tarrytown at the nortli, all seem to be 
included in these purchases. 

Then is mentioned the most northerly plot, that lying 
above the Pocantico, the original description of whicli 
reads about as follows : " All that tract or portion of land 
commonly called by the Indians SincA' iSiuck, and situate, 
lying and being on the east side of Hudson's river by the 
northwest part of the land purchased by the said Fred- 
erick Phillips, and so running alongst Hudson's river to a 
certain creek or river called Kifc/ieaioan, and from thence 
running alongst said creek two English miles," and then 
eastward to the Nij>'pioilia, and back along Philipse's 
land to the Hudson river. 

By this last description we are brought to the Croton 
river. Besides this compact tract Mr. Philipse acquired 
title to land over at Tappan in Rockland County, and 
in the highlands to the north. Indeed a noble domain. 

By the time Philipse had acquired so much land he 
had also managed to make many enemies, persistent 
enemies, who were ever on the watch for opportunities to 
perjdex and arruoj" him. One of tiiese, Earl Belhnont, 
took the trouble to write to England concerning extrava- 
gant land grants. In one letter he says : "Fred. Philips 



14 

and his son, and most of those grantees have iheir land 
lying on Hudson's river— the river it is that makes the 
land valuable — and should they have the liberty of choos- 
ing, they will take the lands that lye to the river, and that 
Avhich lies backward from the river will be worth no man's 
acceptance." Then certain other jealous merchants com- 
plained that " particular connivance has been practiced to 
some few Dutch merchants, viz. : ffrederick Phillips and 
Stephanus Cortlandt, in regard to trade by those discour- 
agements given indeed to all English." It was gravely 
charged in a public document of that time, that "the 
Governor gave instructions to one ffalkins, who is head 
searcher, not to be too strict what goods came to ffrederick 
Phillips, but to be very strict in searching what goods 
came to Penhorn and Robinson." 

Governer Andros very promptly replied that "Mr. 
ffrederick Phillipse and Captain Cortlandt are very eminent 
men, and were heretofore magistrates of the City, and were 
since taken into the Council, of which they still are and 
deserve to be." 

Thus far everything which the industrious Vlypse 
touched seemed to liourish, and his enemies and accusers 
were constantly defied and vanquished. In one Council 
after another this " eminent man," as the Governor called 
him, served his new master, all the while increasing his 
worldly stores and enlarging both his home and his foreign 
trade. 

At the moment of his greatest prosperity came the one 
sorrow of his life. The great merchant had, as we have 
seen, envious rivals in business, who were constantly 
watching for some weak point in his trade. Some little, 
or, mayhaj), some great fault in his dealings. 

Now, it appeared that it had been enacted as one of 
the laws of the Colony, in "An Act Restraining and 
Punishing Privateers and Pyrates. That all and every 
person or persons that shall trade or hold any correspond- 
ence with any person that shall be deemed Pyrates, shall 
be lyable to be prosecuted against as accessories and con- 
federates, and to suffer such Pains and Penalties as in such 
case by law is provided." And this enactment was neces- 



15 

sary, because piracy was rife in those days, and many a 
merchant, of otherwise good repute, had been sus^jected of 
dealing in stolen goods, and of winking at certain very 
questionable transactions. Soon rumors, started dear 
knows how, or by whom, began to fly around thick and 
fast that the Philipses, father and son, were also engaged 
in the unlawful trade. These rumors then took shape in 
so-mewhatiiehnite suggestions, which suggestions in turn 
grew soon into positive charges. The Board of Trade 
said, without circumlocution, ''We only beg leave to add 
one thing further, it is an account of a ship or sloop called 
the Frederick, belonging to Mr. Frederick Phillips, one of 
His Majesty's Council of New York, which, upon expecta- 
tion of a vessel there from Madagascar, was sent out by 
the said Frederick Philips, under the conduct of Adolphus 
Philips, his son, upon pretence of a voyage to Virginia, 
but really to cruise at sea in order to meet the said vessel 
from Madagascar. Uj)on meeting of that vessel greal par- 
cells of East India goods were, by direction of the said 
Adolphus Philips, taken out of her and put aboard said 
sloop Frederick, w ith which by his order she sayled to 
Delaware Bay, and lay there privately. He, in the mean- 
while, returned in the Madagas(.'ar ship — having then only 
negroes slaves on board — to New York, and after some 
days came again to the Frederick sloop in Delaware Bay. 
There said sloop delivered some small part of the East 
India cargo, and from thence, by his direction, sayled w4th 
the rest — 'north about Scotland — to Hamburgh, w^here, 
some seizure having been made by Sir Paul Picaut and the 
men sent hither, they have, each of them, severally made 
depositions to that matter." The Captain of the Frederick 
was one Humphrey Perkings, said to have been one of the 
crew of the notorious pirate Coates. 

Some one about that time wrote that, "it does not 
look well that Mr. Philipse should imploy a man of such 
character." 

No very satisfactory answer could be made to these very 
grave and direct charges. It was useless to deny the main 
facts. The charges were too grave and too well proven to 
the home government to allow the matter to remain 



16 

entirely nniioticed. Cause for action was given by reason 
of a petition sent from New York praying that "F'recl- 
erick Philips (whose great concerns in illegal trade are not 
only the subject of common fame, but are fully and partic- 
ularly proved by the dejDositions relating to the Frederick 
sloop aforementioned) may be removed from his place in 
Council." The petition was approved, and in Sixteen, 
hundred and ninety-eight Frederick Philips was removed 
from his position in His Majesty's Council for the Colony 
of New York. 

It wdll now^ be necessary to retrace our steps some- 
what and note a few of the doings of Vlypse and his noble 
wife as regards the Manor. Having acquired possession 
of the land, upon some parts of which there Avere now 
settlements, as would appear from the recitations of vari- 
ous records preserved to us, Philipse as we may now call 
him, proceeded to arrange for a dwelling or dwellings for 
himself, his family and retainers, at several points within 
the Manor. 

The low lying land upon the Pocantico to the north of 
the present village of Tarrytown seemed a goodly spot, 
and here we lind him erecting and using wdiat is now 
known to us as Castle Philipse. Here also he built the 
renowned Church at Sleepy Hollow, which locality our 
Irving has made so well known. 

Another spot, probably already used for mill purposes 
by his predecessor, upon which he built at least a portion 
of the present house, w^as at JVap-pac/c-a-mack, the "ra- 
pid w^ater settlement" of the Indians. Here is now the 
completed Manor House of the Philpses, revered and 
cherished by our Yonkers people as a sacred gift en- 
trusted to us for safe and hallowed keeping. 

Efforts are now being made by the Historical Society to 
obtain permanent possession of this, "Manor Hall," as we 
call it, and to establish therein a historical museum and 
library. At present it is used as a City Hall, but all 
things being considered, is well kept and in a good state of 
preservation. I quote from 



■''Heroism of women of Westchester County," 

Women Exhibit — Worlds' Columbian Exposition. 

Julia Fextox Atkins, 

Yonkers, N. Y., lb 92. 

'" Among the Dutch dames of Westchester none are 
'^' more renowned, none better known than Catharine, 
■" daughter of the Right Honorable Oloff Stevenson Van 
■*'■ Cortlandt, second wife of Yi-ederyck Ylypsen, Lord of 
*' the Manor of Phillipsburgh. 

" OlolT Yan Cortlandt was a man of great learning, an 
■*' able Councillor and Burgomaster of New Amsterdam, so 
"" that Catharine enjoyed to the greatest possible extent 
'• the benefits Avhicli his education and high social position 
" conferred. Reared in the lap of luxury in the gi-eat 
^' town on Manhattan Island, it seems an odd choice which 
■" led her to the solitudes of Westchester County. Were 
*' it not for her inti-epid course during the thirty or more 
" years in which sh-e made the little Castle on the Pocan- 
"" tico her home, our western line of settlements along the 
" Hudson would not have advanced as rapidly as they 
^' did. Indeed what would Philipse Manor have been 
^' without her genial presence and encouraging work in 
■'" the wilderness of which Governor Bellomont spoke so 
■" slightingly about that time, namely, that the greater 
*" part of Westchester County would remain a wilderness 
^' for all time. It was the same Earl who snappishly re- 
*' marked when he came as an English Governor to the 
^' Colony, 'Yan Kip, Yan Dam and Yan Cortlandt; the 
"" names speak Dutch and the men scarce speak English.' 

*' In the last days of the seventeenth century Philipse 
*' built a dam across the Pocantico, a little above the point 
'' wdiere it sluggishly flowed into and mixed with the waters 
*' of the greater Hudson. Here, too, he built his so-called 
" Castle Philipse, and here he and his brave wife biiilt tiie 
^' 'Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow.' At this time 
*' access was had to this point chiefly by boat, but tradi- 
■" tion has it that, so interested in hei- work settling and 
*' evangelizing was she. that she often rode on horseliack 
*' through the forest over Indian trails from her city resid 
*' ence to the little Castle on the Pocantico. And this 



IS 

" when the terrible days of the Massacre were not yet 
'" become historical. 

" Not alone was Catharine noted because she braved 
" the terrors of a new settlement, or because she happened 
" to be the Lady of the Manor. Being a woman endowed 
" with great gifts, she imparted those gifts to her people, 
" and the impress of her character and the evidence of her 
" charities are felt and seen to-day on and around the 
" Pocantico, although two hundred years have elapsed 
" since she endowed the Church and instructed the Dutch 
" settlers. Upon the Communion service of this Church 
' is engraved the name of Catharine Van Cortlandt. 

''After Frederick Philipse's death in seventeen hun- 
" dred and two, and until seventeen hundred and thirty, 
'' (Catharine Van Cortlandt was the life and light of the 
'* settlement. In the Church records she is tenderly spoken 
"'of as the Right Honorable Grodfearing, very wise and 
" prudent Lady Catharine Philipse. So interested was she 
" in the Church and its work, that it is said she defrayed 
" the expenses of bringing the minister when he came from 
" his home in Hackensack several times a year for about 
" twenty years." 

By the Royal Charter before mentioned Philipse had 
many and valuable franchises conferred upon him, notably 
the right to build a bridge and levy toll at the river at 
Spuyten Diiyvil Creek, and it was in the Charter provided 
that, '"the aforesaid bridge be from henceforth called 
Kingsbridge.'' That was just two hundred and one years 
ago, and that bridge bears the same name to this day, as 
does the settlement which lies adjacent thereto. In those 
days each foot passenger paid two pence current money, 
and each man and horse six x)ence. Cattle, &c., in propor- 
tion. And then the Lord of the Manor could hold Court 
and impose lines and exercise many powers later vested 
only in the representatives of a free jDeople. 

The Charter reserved to the King the magnificent rent 
of Four Pounds, Twelve Shillings annually, together with 
the privilege of passing the King's troops, wagons, coaches, 
&('., over Kingsbridge free of toll. 



19 

Before Pliilii.se's deatli in the enily days of the 
•eighteeiitli ceiitiiry, he had the satisfaction to see very 
considerable progress in the settlement of his Manor. But 
as his primary object was not colonization in the purchase, 
it is not strange that greater progress toward opening 
up the country was not made. Certain it is, however, 
that the beginning of the new century found a notable 
change and many settlers in the Manor. 

The period ranging from the death of Frederick 
Philipse to the attainder of the last Philipse was one of 
great and interesting growth. Old St. John's Chundi, near 
the Yonkers Manor Hall, was built. Several incipient 
villages sprang up, chiefly upon the sites of the Indian 
settlements. Roads, such as thej' were, were cut through 
the forest, bridges weie built across the streams, farms 
were let to a stalwart and intelligent tenantry, and a good 
form of local government inaugurated. Great additions 
were njade to the Castle at Tarrytown and to Manor Hall 
at Yonkers, and the grounds around them were beautified 
in imitation of foreign gardens and parks. 

At the opening of the War of the Revolution this 
magnificent domain, with its almost royal privileges and 
income, belonged to the Philipse family. At the close of 
the Revolution the disloyal Philipse, so lately a Baron, 
was a fugitive, and this vast estate passed to the people. 
Never was there a greater shattering of a princely holding. 
Never a greater diffusion of vast wealth. From the pin- 
nacle of power cast down in a day to the very depth, shorn 
both of power and land. What the last Philipse managed 
to carry to England with him has as yet not been disclosed 
to his people whom he left ui)on the Hudson, or to their 
descendants. 



20' 
PART lit 



DISSOLUTION OF THE MANOR. 



Frederick Piiilipse, Esquire, Lord of the Manor of 
Philipsbiirgli, late Speaker of the Colonial Assembly, the 
last of the American Philipses, (for the family has been con- 
tinued to this time at Chester, England,) had to withdraw 
his family from Manor Hall at Yonkers, and was domiciled 
in a safer and more congenial spot than his late residence- 
among the patriotic yeon:en of Westchester County. John 
Williams, his steward, alone remained, calnjly awaiting- 
the snmmons which was to disx^osseses both his wor- 
shipful master and himself from Manor, mill and farm:, 
hoping perhaps for a restoration, which was fated never 
to come to pass. An angry tenantary in actual possession 
of all but a few hundred acres immediately adjaceut to 
the Manor House, clamored with communistic zeal for a 
division of the spoils. A patriotic but j^eripatetic State 
Legislature, fleeing from place to place, constantly in fear 
Ifst the British army should overtake and capture them at 
one of their proscribed sessions, listened with only too 
willing ears to the doubtful proposals of the p)atriots. 
But, alas ! for patriotic hopes, the moving assembly 
scarcely found time to tarry long enough to attend to its 
most urgent business^ to say nothing about contiscation 
acts, bills of attainder, and division of the spoils of war. 
So confiscation and distribution had to wait. 

It was not until the third session of the Legislature 
of the State of New York, held at Kingston, Ulster 
County, that an act was passed relating to the "forfeiture 
and sale of the property of the enemies of the State. '^ 
This remarkable act, which bears date October twenty- 
second, seventeen hundred and seventy-nine, recites in its 
preamble the war with Great Britain and the fact that 
divers persons holding property in the State have adhered 
to the King of Great Britain. It then jn-oceeds to enact 
and declare that Frederick Philipse, now or late of the 
County of Westchester and many others, be and each of 
them are hereby severally declared to be ipso facto con- 



21 

victed and attainted of the oiyeiice," (of voluntary adhe- 
sion to the King of Great Britain,) and declares all the 
property of the aforesaid " to be forfeited to and vested 
in the People of the State of New York/' A simple but 
potent process. Thus hj a single section of an Act i)assed 
by a fugitive Assembly of rebels, the magnificent domain 
We have been considering fell into the hands of the 
people. 

Of course the " People " in the shape of the State did 
not want the land, but the tenants of Frederick Philiiise 
did. The State needed the prize money, which confisca- 
tion promised. So the State appointed Commissioners of 
Forfeitures, so-called, to dispose of the confiscated land, 
and probably at the same time appropriated any movnble 
property the gentry had abandoned. 

Lest the tenants of the Manor should lose their indi- 
vidual holdings, or disloyal parties buy when the snle 
should take place it was provided, that each tenant should 
have pre-emption of his farm at an appraised price upon 
furnishing satisfactory evidence of his loyalty to the 
" cause." On its part the State promised that every deed 
given by the Commissioners of Forfeiture should operate 
as a warranty from the People of the State of New York. 
Then as if fearing a restoration of baronial rule the Act 
provided that the quantity of land to be sold in one parcel 
should not exceed live hundred acres. It was then further 
provided that the dear tenants or any other patriotic 
purchaser might pay for their purchases in either of ten 
specified kinds of currency then in common use. 

By way of an amendment a later Legislature declared 
the unfortunate Phili]ise and other attainted parties "to 
be forever banished from this State" and declared them if 
found thereafter within its borders "guilty of felony," 
for which crime, "they shall suffer death, as in the case 
of felony, without benefit of clergy." They were there- 
fore traitors because they left the country, and would be 
felons should they return to it. How those innocent 
wolves of tenants all over the Manor must have chuckled 
when they read or heard about the ferocious warning to 
their loved Lord of the Manor of Philipsburgh. 



22 

Poor Philipse lost his lands by going awaj^, but be 
saved Ills neck from the halter by remaining at Chester. 
Before the hungry tenants had all been supplied with 
farms the Lord of the Manor had been gathered to his 
fathers. 

The owner ousted and a fugitive, the tenants found a 
new task-master in the State, whicdi demanded not only 
the purchase price, but all arrears of rent which the wily 
tenants thought they had saved. 

In spite of Acts and amendments to Acts the authori- 
ties delayed the sales, and the angry tenantry grew 
impatient. 

William Paulding and many others, who described 
themselves as ''Whig tenants of the Manor of Philips- 
burgh;" petitioned the legislature for "a speedy sale of 
forfeited lands in Philipsburgh Manor." This petition 
seems to have overtaken the State Government at Kings- 
ton, for, when the Legislature unceremoniously adjourned 
and moved on, Paulding's petition was left among bushels 
of waste paper, and was found in a garret in Kingston, and 
sold with other papers to the State by a thrifty burgher 
of that town. It was endorsed, " Referred to a Committee 
with orders to prepare a bill." This paper with others 
found at the same time may now be seen in the State 
Library at Albany. 

After several years more of delay the Legislature, not 
quite so fugitive as formerly, found time to amend the 
Act of Forfeiture, and also to pass additional bills. 

Some of the farms were sold by tiie Commissioners at 
public sale. Others they appraised and sold to the 
tenants. At the public sales it is recorded there were at 
times no bidders, again it often happened that the pur- 
chaser failed to pay for the farm he bought, and the 
l)arcel was sold anew. 

A tenant having asked i:>ermission to |)urchase his 
farm, the Commissioners, after an appraisement, required 
the would-be purchaser to furnish them with what was 
called in those days a "Certificate of Attachment." This 
Certiticate, verified by the oath of a dozen reputable in- 
habitants, read as follows: 



'* We, whose names hre liereiinto subscribed, and all of 
*' us inhabitants of the County of Westchester, do certify 

*' that aforesnid, yeoman, liath constantly and nni- 

*' formly since the said ninth day of July, one thousand 
" seven hundred and seventy-six, demined himself as a 
'' Friend to the Freedom and Independence of the United 
" States, and hath, as far as his circumstances would 
'' admit, taken an Active and Decisive part to uiaintaiii 
" and support the same." 

Without this certificate the Commissioners would not 
act upon the tenant's i)etition. Wlnit a grand opportunity 
here to get permanently rid of an obnoxious neighboi'. oi- 
what a chance for spiteful neighbors to get even with old 
scores. 

What with such motives on the part of some, and 
the positive disloyalty to the ]tatriot cause of others, one 
finds quite a number of the old tenants' names missing 
from the roll of purchasers. 

But even when the patriot tenant received his loiig 
sought and precious deed he w\as not always secure in the 
possession, as witness the lamentable case of Arnold Hunt, 
who bought tW'O hundred acres of Westchester County 
confiscated land. Among the Kingston rubbish is to be 
found his petition to the Legislature, wherein he makes 
this confession in asking for a new deed, namelj% that he 
*' w^ent to New York City and had his pocket book taken 
*' and his deed in it.'' From which little incident we ai-e 
free to infer that New York City of a century ago was as 
dangerous and seductive to the simple minded, untutored 
Westchester County farmer of the day, as it sometimes 
is to his wiser successors at the present time. 

The Old Manor House at Yonkers, with sonie thiee 
hundred acres around it, was sold to one Cornelius P. 
Low% a land speculatoi', whose name figures also in early 
records of the settlement of the Adirondack region. 

And thus the vast estate of "Frederick Philipse of 
said County, Escpiire,"" came into the possession of our 
forefathers, and the Manor of Pliilipsburgh passed into 
history. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 220 069 7 



